Hike Description

Henry’s Lake State Park is a small park on the shore of a beautiful lake just west of Yellowstone National Park. While this is a beautiful lake, there is not much to the park, mainly a campground and a boat ramp, but there is a small network of trails that are seldom used and quite nice. It is easy to create a short loop by combining one leg of the Aspen Loop Trail with the Outlet Overlook Trail.

This trail starts at the end of a short dirt road with a parking area and a chained gate. The trail heads up the hill and offers views in all directions, notably the lake to the west. At the first trail junction, stay right to follow the Outlet Overlook Trail and climb along the bluff for great views up to the lake with Mount Jefferson on the Continental Divide in the distance. At the next trail junction, stay left to start heading back on the Aspen Loop. This segment climbs through beautiful aspen groves and open forest, then descends to connect again with the short trail over the ridge of open sagebrush back to the gate.

Henry’s Lake is named for Major Andrew Henry, a fur trader for the Missouri Fur Company.